Tag Archives: climate change

Since the beginning Alpine of the Americas Project (AAP) has focused on developing meaningful ways to take on new outdoor adventures and provide valuable information for science at the same time. Today we’re thrilled to report to you our progress.

What happened?

On June 28, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley featured AAP and shared our story of repeating historic photographs to document local effects of climate change. The 3-minute piece summarized our rephotography work in the Sierras and Patagonia and sharing these photos with local communities and climate scientists. We’re proud the piece was beautiful and simple, though there is still much more to tell.

What’s Next?

We’re working hard to get individuals out on their own repeating historic photos this summer as well as running a trip this summer in the high country of Yosemite National Park to facilitate and guide the experience of repeating historic photographs.

We’re also expanding our project’s reach. Students from Outward Bound California will be incorporating historic repeats into their curriculum as service projects to give their students a meaningful way to be adventurous while contributing to climate science. With our new relationships with RePhoto and meadow and forest succession scientists, we’re allowing the casual hiker an easier experience, closer to the beaten path. Meanwhile, we continue to find premiere athletes willing to go to remote places where scientists rarely have the time or budget to travel to. By expanding our reach we’ll become even more effective at contributing useful photographs to climate scientists and building a visual record of our changing watersheds.

Last week my Alpine of the Americas partner, Jonathan Byers, touched down in Santiago, Chile and made his way south to the tiny Gaucho town of Perto Bertrand to set-up base camp for the next five months. After two weeks, he’s already taught glaciology on the Northern Patagonia Ice Sheet, to high school students from Nido de Aguilas, an international school in Santiago. He’s helping them understand how their own homes are connected to these ice sheets, even though they are countless horizons away.

Yet we don’t have to travel across the world to see these changes. They are right here at home. Hurricane Sandy has been a huge lesson for the North East Coast and unfortunately for many people recognizing these changes takes them coming and knocking on our doors. Even here in San Francisco, we have been touched and reminded how vulnerable we are. In these challenging times it is rewarding to see is the humanity that arises when we are faced with a collective struggle.

The Earth’s changing climate is affecting us all but in many unique and unpredictable ways. Alpine of the Americas goal is to use simple, repeatable, and useful observations to help us tell the story of how our environments are changing. Few people read the scientific papers that tell us how the world is changing, so we strive to generate the content that stimulates conversations of how local communities must adapt to and mitigate climate change.

What this ultimately requires are local, personal connections. Its been 6 weeks since Jonathan and I took a group of Presidians to Yosemite to repeat historic photos of the Dana Glacier to be the first beings to witness the Sierra Nevada’s changes from a this unique perspective. This group became participants by capturing images that can tell the story of how our changing snowpack is affecting Californians today.

Morgan Matthews looks down on a lake below Mt. Dana

While these glaciers are an important legacy of past ice ages their value lies in how they are indicators of less water being stored in snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. These mountains are the sole water source in the late summer for Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides 25% of the fresh drinking water for the City of San Francisco. While these glaciers seem remote and disconnected from daily life, they are directly connected to the faucets that millions of people depend on every day. This week, the outcome of Proposition F will determine if the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission will spend $8 million to determine the feasibility of removing this dam.

We honor our participants who create this story through photographs, who tell it to help others understand that the safety and security of our lives depends on how we relate to the world.

In Chile, Patagoinia’s glaciers are diminishing too, but this is only an indicator of a larger story. Jonathan is now based at the heart of Chile’s largest environmental and social debate. Downstream from his guide cabin at Patagonia Adventure Expeditions, is the second largest alpine Ice Cap in the world. Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) from the Northern Patagonia Ice Sheet periodically discharge enormous masses of water down this already voluminous river. Yet downstream hidroAysen plans to build two hydrodams on the Baker River to generate energy for Chile’s copper mines thousands of miles north in the Atacama desert, even though the this high desert has the world’s highest yields for solar energy. Needless to say, hidroAysen’s risky investment of placing two dams on Rio Baker’s unstable hydrology is being criticized in Chile.

Protests against the proposed Baker and Pascua River Dams in Santiago last month. Photo by James Q Martin jamesmartin.com

The Nido de Aguilas students dream of an economy in which they can thrive. Economic progress is necessary, but unsustainable growth doesn’t necessarily create the desired end. Will 1,864 miles of power lines through Chile’s National Parks and/or into neighboring Argentina justify bringing energy to Santiago and the copper mines to the north, when alternatives exist? We’re skeptical. Alpine of the Americas helps individuals become part of the conversation, to stimulate discourse that influences decision makers. We do not claim to know the answers, but when faced with a crisis, we believe that people can work together to be proactive and create positive solutions for our changing world.

I’ve never gotten to go in a time machine but until they invent one repeat photography is about as close as I’ll get.

The process starts slowly: mining the internet, talking to museum archivists, getting hundreds of old photographs with vague descriptions of locations from scientists, leafing through beautiful old books that are worth more than my camera, and ending up with thousands of historic photographs, sketches, and maps on my computer.

Days are spent pouring over maps and working in Google Earth to try to align mountains, glaciers, and ridges, figuring out the most likely area the photo was taken from and how to get there. From this point it’s time to go to the nearest town, print out the black and white images on paper, load up my backpack with tent, stove, food, and camera gear and go into the mountains. Some photos can be gotten on an afternoon run, others require multiple days of hiking to get to.

Then the psychology starts. To find the precise location of a photograph I find that I need to get into the mind of the photographer I am repeating. Through repeating many photos I start to learn where different photographers liked standing and what subjects interested them. Alberto de Agostini, a mountaineer at heart, liked shooting from high ridges with grand views. G.K. Gilbert, a photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, really liked unique rocks and landscapes. When I look with this knowledge I can almost intuitively know where they might have stood.

Finally it clicks. Walking along a ridge, seeing two boulders and thinking “Yep. That is exactly where de Agostini stood.” Seeing a rock outcrop and thinking, “If I were G.K. Gilbert, that is where I would have taken this photo from.” And it all comes together. Get the print out of my pocket, hold it up, and I have a window into the past.

Sometimes the changes are obvious, sometimes subtle, but standing in the same location and being able to see how it looked 50, 80, 100, years ago is an incredible experience. The next best thing to a time machine: a time window.

When you arrive in a town and the first things people tell you about are how they’ve never seen so much good weather, how the trees are turning fall colors months early because it is so dry, how the approach to the Torre valley that climbers have been using for half a century is too dangerous to continue using because the glacier is receding, there is no doubt about the changes. People who spend their time in the mountains, who make their living in the mountains see it every day. There is no doubt.

Yet for the people who do not interact with these landscapes, it is easy to keep thinking that nothing has changed. The changes are more subtle. More fights over water rights, ski areas only having fake snow into late January, and restrictions on when people can water their lawns. The real question is how to connect people with these changes in a way that they understand. At Alpine of the Americas Project we see repeat photography not only as a useful tool for scientific research, but also as an extremely powerful way of communicating these changes to people who don’t see it for themselves. In a world that relies heavily on visual communication, we hope that showing people the huge changes that are occurring in alpine areas will contribute to people taking ownership for our collective impacts.

The last few weeks in El Chalten, Argentina, has been an interesting experience in contrasts. The town is nestled at the base of the Fitz Roy group of mountains. The town has only been in existence for 25 years and was established to lay claim to land that both Argentina and Chile say they own. While the economy of the town is based on taking people out into the mountains to experience the spectacular natural beauty, the town itself has a lot to figure out. Trash is dumped in a big open pile by the river, and four generators run full blast day and night to power the town. The town has no plan for development and is facing the pressure of rapidly increasing tourism and development. As with any time a community faces rapid changes, whether it is a small mountain town or a global community, they need to come together and decide what they want and what action they need to take.

We are currently focusing on writing a handful of grants for the American Alpine Club and National Geographic to secure funding for another year of this project. We’ve also been focusing on getting other people out repeating photographs for us. The photo above is of the road near El Chalten, which is now a paved two lane highway. Hopefully a few Canadian cyclists will be able to get this photo. In the mean time, be well.

Yes, our project is focused on the changes happening in glaciers and alpine ecosystems due to global climate change. This is the core of what we do, but the reason why most people really care about this is the effects it has on populations. As our climate changes it will cause dramatic and unpredictable hydrological, social, and ecological changes. The Rio Baker in the Aysen region of Chile is a focal point for all of these issues.

The Baker River, the largest river in Chile by volume, flows out of Lago General Carrera. Fed by glacial melt coming off the Northern Patagonia Ice Field, the second largest ice mass outside of the polar regions, it winds down through lakes and valleys before flowing into the ocean in the town of Tortel. The controversy surrounds a project to build five hydroelectric dams by the multinational power company hidroAysen on this river, and a subsequent 1,200 miles of high-voltage power lines necessary to distribute the power up to Santiago, Chile.

In this process, we are trying to not take the role of advocates against the dams. We are hoping to understand this controversy better and be able to share the realities of what this means for the river ecosystem and for the communities involved in this. To see more photos visit our gallery on Facebook.From talking to people in the area there is a strong division between the people who support that construction of the dams and those who are opposed. Because the Chilean economy and education systems are highly privatized, many families have trouble affording education for their children or being able to make a living in these rural areas. When hidroAyisen offers them $400,000 US or more to buy their land to put a power line across it, few people can afford not to take that offer. At the same time many people see the potential to work building the dams, roads, power lines, and other infrastructure that will accompany this project and see it as a much needed boost to the local economy. To continue growing its economy, particularly the highly lucrative copper mining in the north, Chile believes it will need to double it’s energy capacity in the next 15 years. The hidroAysen project would supply 35% of the current total energy capacity of Chile, and would help reduce the dependence on neighboring Argenitna for natural gas imports.

The people who oppose it say it will destroy the things that make this remote area of Patagonia special and worth living in or visiting. Because the hydroelectric companies own a significant portion of the total water rights to the Baker River, many farmers will no longer be allowed to irrigate their land if hydroAysen actually claims their water rights. Furthermore, if they are able to secure the right of way for the 1,200 miles of power lines, the rights to cut the trees and the mineral rights underneath will be allocated to other companies to develop creating one of the largest single clear-cuts in the world. For the local guides who run rafting trips on this spectacular section of the Baker River, they will have to switch to kayaking on a lake as the upper Baker River dam site will inundate these popular class IV and V rapids.

If this wasn’t enough, the biggest problem is that hydroAysen has not studied the volatility of the upstream glaciers at all. The Colonia Glacier flows off the Northern Patagonia Ice Field and blocks the flow of a small river. This creates a natural dam of ice. When the lake fills up and builds up enough pressure it breaks through the ice holding it back releasing a flood of water down towards the Baker River. As the Colonia Glacier retreats due to global warming these floods, called Glacier Lake Outburst Floods or GLOF’s, are only expected to get bigger. Not only would these contribute to filling the downstream reservoirs with sediments very rapidly, if one of these GLOF’s caused a failure of a dam on the Baker River the flood would completely wipe out many homes, including the entire town of Tortel.

As it currently stands, the construction of these dams has been approved by the Chilean government, but are being held up by a case in the supreme court. A decision is expected on this in the next few months. What does the future hold for these dams? No one really seems to have any idea what the ultimate decision will be, but we will continue talking to people and learning more about this. If a decision is made we can only hope it will be well informed.

Our first experience in the Andino verdad has been an incredible trip up Mount Tronador. As with any of our repeat photography trips we started with a stack of photos printed in black and white and ended up with a deeper understanding of a place.

Cierro Tronador is a large volcano hidden behind the mountains near Bariloche, Argentina. On our first day on the mountain we climbed above Refugio Otto Meiling toward a beautiful ridge called Lamotte. A short hike obtains this ridge giving the spectator wonderful views of two of Tronador’s three summits. From this vantage it is easy to appreciate the former scale of these incredible glaciers that still pour off this volcanoes flanks. Here, we repeated two historic photos. After a short jaunt to a nearby summit to preview our next two adventures, we descended back to the refugio for a great New Years celebration with friends.

On our second day, we climbed Cierro Constitucion. Despite the bushwhacking through lenga bush and tabanos, or horseflies, we were able to summit and take one of our best historic repeat photos to date. Alberto M. de Agostini, in some ways the Ansel Adams of the Andes, took this photo of Tronador´s Frias Glacier from the summit of Constitucion in 1949. These photos show the most startling changes we’ve witnessed so far. Our repeat photo reveals an incredible amount of retreat and thinning. Where there were once huge icefalls, there are now rivers, lakes, and breathtaking waterfalls.

Our most difficult decision was to forgo taking our oldest photos. We decided to not climb to Cierro Interncional where these photos were taken from because the temperatures were unusually warm at night and the glacier surface was not freezing. This meant that the loose volcanic rocks were free to crumble off of the summits to the glacier paths below. Instead we chose to climb Pico Argentino, since it had far less rock fall danger. We were living our dreams, celebrating the sunrise as we welcomed the spirit of adventure and gave our thoughts to Travis Lizotte, whose life was taken very near our route.

Phase two is now complete. Next, we are setting out for Chile, where a whole new adventure awaits: to better understand and articulate the deep and intricate relationships between glaciers, people, and dams.

Cierro Tronador is the heart of our Andes adventure. Our first steps into the Patagonian wilderness will be toward the mountain that took the life of our friend and fellow Outward Bound instructor Travis Lizotte. We dedicate this next portion to celebrate his life and spirit. In his life he opened his heart to so many people, showing and creating the kindness possible in humanity. He left a legacy that guides how we may trod our own path giving, and in turn, receiving.

We celebrate Travis and heed the insight of our Canadian friend and experienced guide, Lorenzo. Lorenzo told us how many of his clients came to the mountains expecting suffering, so they suffered. On Aconcagua and in the Himalayas, Lorenzo observed that people who approached a mountain with humility and compassion experienced less of a battle and more of a salutation. Travis approached life with similar compassion and we believe it is no coincidence that he lived a life rich in happiness and community.

We hope to approach Tronador with the same open heart and compassion that Travis lived by. We celebrate Travis’ life as we have and will celebrate the life of Matthew Baxter III. These two inspirational men guide our own interpersonal connections with people we are close to and they inspire us to generate strong bonds among the people outside our communities.